Standby-
and talk-time are important hard facts for today's mobile devices and mobile
phones since these figures tell the user something about the run-time, he can expect from
the device. However, as good as these figures are, they are not saying anything
about the actual use-time of a device. Especially with the introduction of
smartphones, the whole battery life figures changed dramatically because
smartphones are not used for voice calls and a couple of text messages anymore
but smartphones handle appointments and contacts, acts as portable media centers
by playing audio tracks and videos as well as being Internet access devices for
web and E-Mail.

Therefore I was looking for a new way of measuring the battery runtime,
something which is comparable with other phones, something which equal and
something which brings the device to the limit. I decided that vide streaming
over UMTS, GPRS or WiFi is the best test-scenario to get comparable figures
about how fast a battery is drained and to get a measureable index.

To make this test scenario even better comparable, I've looked for a
test-setup and decided that place-shift TV from
Sling Media'sSlingbox provides
the best test scenario for several reasons: The Slingbox provides a nearly
constant quality and the required
SlingPlayer
is (now) available for all major platforms including Windows Mobile, Palm OS,
Symbian as well as Windows and Mac OS.

But why video streaming over a wireless connection? Well, it has several
advantages since it keeps the device really busy and uses nearly all device
resources by using the wireless radio, using the CPU for decoding the received
stream as well as outputting the stream on the screen and speaker.

Doesn't matter if it is a 2.5G or 3G smartphone or just a PDA which supports
WiFi only - every device which can install Sling Media's Slingplayer Mobile can
be used for the, using the::unwired's "Slingdex" test scenario:

The appropriate Slingplayer Mobile is installed and configured

The device is fully charged

The display brightness and audio volume is set to a medium level

For Smartphones (with inbuilt 2G/3G radios):

GSM or UMTS is switched on

Bluetooth is switched on

WiFi is switched off

For PDAs (without inbuilt 2G/3G radios):

WiFi is
switched on

Bluetooth is switched off

The fully charged device is completely switched off and disconnected from the charger

It's now switched on to make sure no other
programs are running in the background

As soon as the Home or Today screen appears, the stopwatch starts

Now the Slingplayer Mobile is launched and is connected to the
previously configured Slingbox

2G devices playback the stream in "Slideshow" mode

3G and WiFi devices playback the stream in "Normal" mode

The stopwatch stops if the device switches off automatically

This test scenario provides a comparable environment and you can now find the
first test results on the::unwired's Slingdex page.
The current Slingdex is far away from being complete but you can contribute. If
you have a device not listed in the Slingdex but also have a Slingbox, you can
do the test by yourself and let us know your results. If you have a device not
listed in the Slingdex yet but no Slingbox, please contact us and we might be
able to arrange access to the::unwired's test Slingbox (courtesy of
Sling Media - thanks
for the support).